


A Case of Belonging

by Merfilly



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Behavior, Charity Auctions, Developing Relationship, F/F, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Missing Scene, Not Canon Compliant, Relationship Negotiation, Sort Of, cherry-picked canon, equality auction, like a lot of them, reference to period crime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:28:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 5,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25653640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: A short piece covering the first meeting of our heroines to the point of marrying.
Relationships: Jenny Flint/Madame Vastra
Comments: 8
Kudos: 40





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Meadow_Lion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meadow_Lion/gifts).



> Canon is spotty for me, so apologies if this tramples over the version you know and prefer. In researching, I found the 'ran away from home' (Audio canon) and 'childhood in a match factory' (prose canon) less satisfying than the 'ostracized by her family for her choices in companionship' (web cast). And while I kept the 'saved her from an attack', I did not wish to cast a racial element in that as happened in Prose canon. 
> 
> Changing her savior from the Doctor to Vastra just felt right.

"Jenny!"

The shout quailed the young woman's heart, for it meant she had been seen or told upon in her adventure with Meg the dairy girl.

_"Just a kiss, to see what the fuss is all about?"_

Oh but Meg's lips had been gentle and sweet, so unlike Ned's the week prior when he'd come a-courting her father's good graces and eventual profits by shining unwanted affections on her.

She dropped her eyes and let her shoulders slump in the expected position of humility in the wake of her father's wrath.

"Yes, Father?"

There was a moment, a single breath of pause —

"Begone from this house, from my business, and never again claim my name," the man decreed in full hearing of the household.

Just like that, she was nothing, with nowhere to turn.

* * *

There were errands to be run, small tasks to be accomplished which fetched tiny bits of coin or bites to eat, but it was no way to survive. No wonder, Jenny thought, that the women turned to selling their favors, in hopes of enticing a man to make her a home, a safe place to live and to have food in.

She couldn't go that far. A man had pawed her when she passed by him just the week before and it had left her feeling a rage she had no way to express. She'd abide, and bid for a place in a factory before she went that far.

Now, if she could but find a wealthy widow with a taste to softer comforts —

"There's one. Lads, catch us a strumpet and we'll make merry on the way to the prison with her!"

The boisterous call sent Jenny's blood to freezing, and she looked to escape any way in which she could. She had been surviving! On her wits and charms for finding those small jobs, but she was making life work!

Down this alley, up into that run between the buildings, over one more… and Jenny started to breathe again. She couldn't hear the bobbies any longer. She moved out into the open then, to pick her way back to the street she had learned how to work so well.

"Where you off to, love?" came a gruff voice.

"Pretty thing like you?"

Jenny looked about and realized she'd fled right into a hovel for ne'er-do-wells, the kind that would take no pity on her for her youth, and unlikely to have a bit of chivalry among them.

"I'll scream," she promised them.

"Good," another said as they began moving more quickly to keep her trapped there, cutting off her escape route. "Been a bit quiet since that Jack fella last came around."

She swallowed hard against rising fear, trying to see how she could possibly get the better of four men.

She didn't see the one that clobbered her the moment her hand showed the small penny knife she'd acquired, as a very feminine voice called out one word.

"Stop!"

As she fell to the filthy street, there was a violent commotion, one that her slightly dazed and very bruised head was having difficulty wrapping around. Something… she had no idea what… happened, and then there was a scattering of feet, away from here.

"I did tell them to stop," came the womanly voice, as Jenny sat up, reaching to touch her head where it had been hit.

Patent leather, laces that were fine and waxed proper, up to just a smidge of stocking before full skirts in rich, heavy fabric showed, on up to heavy veils like a mourning widow, from a hat that didn't seem to have been mussed at all in whatever had happened.

"I… thank you, Missus," Jenny said, trying to be as proper as she could be, despite being just a showman's disowned daughter.

"Oh, I assure you I've never been married, little one. Come along. Make certain to fold the knife back before you hide it away; I am certain you're a bit dizzy and unaware of your body's placement enough to not hurt yourself with it otherwise."

The words… rattled on, but Jenny wanted to believe there was concern there.

Did she dare trust?

"Come. I promise you're not to be a meal or anything else untoward," the woman said. "Call me Madame Vastra, and let me give you aid, child."

"Not a child. My name's Jenny, and … as you will." She managed to get upright, after folding the knife and putting it away. The lighting here did not aid with penetrating the veil, but the hand under her elbow, gloved Jenny noted, and the one at the small of her back were gentle in their guidance.


	2. Sanctuary

She didn't much remember getting back to this place, nor how she came to be in a bed, in only her underclothes, and all the skin feeling clean. Her head did not ache, nor did she feel any other injury despite the loss of conscious awareness of her surroundings.

"Awake, are you?" the woman, still veiled, still mysterious, and walking in the darker parts of the room to obscure a good look, to Jenny's curious annoyance.

"Yes, Madame Vastra," Jenny answered before reaching for the tray being extended her way. "Will you join me?" she asked, when that kept the woman out of good viewing.

"Oh, I'm pleasantly full from earlier, Jenny. Strange you offer no patronym in your introduction. Most of your kind are so quick to name your ties of such short duration."

Jenny frowned and ducked her head. "I'm disowned, Madame Vastra. And if that's a bit too far for your genteel self, I'll see myself out, once I've put my clothes back on." Those bold words came full on the heels of finding her courage, of tipping her head back up to look at the impenetrable veils.

"I do like a forthright person. Well, in order to properly employ you, I will need a name of some sort to append to the contract."

"Ma'am?"

Jenny wanted to scramble back from the woman, for all her thoughts of finding a wealthy woman to give her a roof and food for naught but kissing.

"I will not have people accuse me of taking in street urchins for nefarious purposes. So, in order for you to remain, given that I am not fond of rescuing humans from themselves, you must be employed. To keep it all proper.

"But. Such decisions should not be made on an empty stomach. Eat. I will await you in the parlor. Your clothing was rather done for, but I brought you one of my dressing gowns until such time as yours are returned by the laundress in the morning."

That could have seemed nefarious, did in the small part of Jenny's mind that had read tales of wonder and adventure. Yet —

"Flint. Jenny Flint," she said, as one of those tales of wonder offered a pseudonym worth living under. "And I will be there swiftly, ma'am."

The veiled woman inclined her head and left in a graceful motion, the skirts only adding to the mystique for they switched and moved in ways that were bold, almost indecorous.

Jenny wondered if the lips beneath the veils were soft like Meg's. She didn't know if she'd ever get to find out, but oh it would be nice to dream.

* * *

The meal disposed of, Jenny looked at the dressing gown, made finely and of the softest cloth she could imagine. Was Madame Vastra wealthy? If so, why had she been alone in such a place? And how did she stop them all? Jenny was certain the woman had been alone after all.

She slipped the gown on and gathered the extra length up craftily into the belt, tying it shut around herself. Then she braved her way from the … office? Yes, it seemed to have been an office, with a fainting couch that she'd been lying upon. Finding the parlor wasn't that difficult, following the sound of a clock and the scratch of pen on paper.

The veiled lady was there, a fancy side table obviously moved to her chair to serve as a desk for her writing. Yet on Jenny's entrance, the pen was set aside, and Madame Vastra sat up straight, hands resting on the arms of the chair.

"Ma'am?"

"Yes, Jenny?"

"Why do you wear where the veil, if you've never been married?"

"For your own peace of mind."

That was not the answer that had been expected, and Jenny had to regroup. "I feel that if I am to entertain the idea of employment, ma'am, I should be certain I've not seen your face on those posters the bobbies put up."

Laughter rippled out from the woman, and Jenny was certain, all over again, that this woman was a mystery worth solving.

The hands both came up, and Jenny's eyes widened a bit, for they were bare and did not look natural to her in the least. It was, however, but a simple prelude to the hat and veil being removed, revealing her benefactress.

The shape of the head flared out, crested out in three ridges along the top for one difference. The skin itself was grayish-green, rippled with visible texture like a wild crocodile from the fanciful tales Jenny'd sometimes read. The gray-blue eyes were … appraising? Neutral? Above the twist of a mouth that was almost smiling, Jenny decided on appraising.

"You don't look like a faked up road-side attraction, ma'am, as I've seen such in my life because of the man that was my father and his business, but… I find myself curious at both the way you look and why you helped me."

The mouth twisting to a true smile made Jenny's heart flutter a little, because it might well mean she had found just the right note to strike with this dangerous yet helpful woman.

"I am not a 'faked up road-side attraction' at all. My people are older than yours, the first intelligent life on this planet. We are called Silurians, and have been here since before the moon became locked in orbit with us," Vastra said.

"So, a lizard woman from the dawn of time?" Jenny asked, to be certain she understood.

"Yes," Vastra answered.

"Very good, ma'am," Jenny decided, as she accepted the idea she was embarking on her own fabulous adventure.

"I think, Jenny Flint, that this may prove quite intriguing for us both."


	3. Intriguing

Vastra took in just how in-stride Jenny had taken her true nature. Was that why she'd been guided to the sound of the scuffle?

No, she needed to not be so maudlin and superstitious as all that. She was stalking the streets, looking for clues to the person dismembering women and leaving the pieces all around London. It had just so happened she'd caught the taste of fear in the air, heard the scuffle, and decided the odds did not suit her.

That was all.

And there were things that needed to be done by those who drew less attention, errands that could be handled without the stares she received.

It had made perfect sense at the time to her way of thinking, and seeing the fortitude of the ape had done more to reinforce that choice. Nothing more than that at all.

"Flint? Are you then modeling yourself on pirate tales?"

The soft little human smiled, but did not duck her head down this time, and Vastra found herself approving more and more of this potential arrangement.

"It'll be an adventure, ma'am, to work with someone so different, who can take on a band of ruffians and end them. The name was first to mind, as I'm forbidden the one I was given at birth."

Vastra studied the young ape, and then gave her a smile of her own. "Well, Jenny Flint, do you think being a maid to me will fill your need for adventure? Or should I call this a lost cause and see you on your way once your clothes come back?"

"I mean to hire on, Madame Vastra, and if maid is what you put to the paper, maid is what I will be. I have no experience in it, but I've always been quick to learn."

"I look forward to testing that theory," Vastra said, and despite herself she knew she was.

Put it down to keeping a pet and teaching it tricks, she told the back of her mind.

* * *

Keeping mammals for pets was… no, she was not going to think of it as interesting or invigorating.

It was work.

Vastra, after all, had been emulating a certain station in life. That meant she had to provide clothing for her new maid that met that station. And then she had to carefully correct certain pronunciations, help Jenny speak in the manner that did not fully give away where she was from.

Not to mention teaching her how to actually survive.

"Set your feet like this, Jenny," Vastra said, showing the position. "Hips — no." She moved over, and used her own foot to nudge the ape's stance to the right point. She placed her hands on the woman's hips, ignoring the flush to her cheeks, and pushed to get them twisted in the right orientation. Next came adjusting the arms, and the shoulders, her hands moving briskly and without wasted motion to do so.

"Like this?" Jenny asked, getting a nod. The mammal then dropped every single bit of the pose, leading Vastra to open her mouth — just before Jenny resumed it all on her own, and with perfection.

"Why couldn't you do it just from watching me then?" Vastra asked, wondering if Jenny's eyesight was more defective than usual for a human.

"I watch you move but can't follow, because my sides get a bit mixed up. When we're facing the same way, it is easier," Jenny said. "I have it now, though."

"Then let us try it a different way," Vastra said, adapting to the problem. "I will stand in front of you, after we bring the floor mirror in here to use."

Jenny's smile shouldn't be so distracting, and yet Vastra was more than relieved to get one from her for this simple a solution.

* * *

Vastra was certain she had it fully in hand. She'd counted four going in, and there were four.

Perhaps it was the heavy smell of fish that had confused her nose, masking the odor of the last miscreant, the one that had already been here.

Hearing the sound of a small firearm readying to shoot her made her spin —

— to see Jenny club him with a shovel.

"I believe I told you I'd be out tonight?" Vastra said, once she was certain the man was not moving.

"I thought I'd come, stay out of the way, and learn more of how you work," Jenny said.

"Hmm." Vastra sized her up a long moment. "I'll show you the tailoring that you need to do to your skirts, to make them less of a liability. And you'll need to spend more time with me in front of the mirror, learning to fight for more than defense. And weapons."

Jenny's smile was not unlike finding the best, warmest spot to bask in the sun.

She really needed to stop having that reaction to her pet ape.


	4. Interlude

"And who is this?"

The Doctor walked around Jenny once, completely ignoring the fire iron clasped in her hand for the moment. His head came up and he looked at Vastra as she entered. "Oh don't you look the height of fashion for the decade? I see you found a human to keep up with?"

"Madame, he let himself in and he's not yet given me his name, his card, or his coat," Jenny complained.

"He will do such, and has the right of it, Jenny." Vastra leveled a look at her maid. "Why don't you go see to putting some tea on?"

The Doctor smiled brightly. "Jenny! I have known others with that name," he said, before the smile faded into a more somber look. "For short times."

"Doctor, if you could please focus and join me in my study? Rather than being yourself at my mammal?"

"Maid," Jenny said.

"Companion?" the Doctor offered.

Vastra answered that by turning and walking away, while Jenny slowly backed up and put the iron where it belonged before going to the kitchen. Left with the choice of standing there or following one, the Doctor turned his attention to Vastra and joined her as suggested.

"In what way may I assist you?"

"I… hmm. I'm not sure?" the Doctor said to that, frowning. "Tracing paths, trying to find something, thinking… thinking, yes…" He looked at her and the smile came back. "Ahh, yes! Congratulations on getting married! That's what the note said!"

"Doctor, I am afraid you are mistaken. I have not married, and have not intention of doing so. It is not a custom among my people."

"What's not a custom among your people?" Jenny asked, arriving with the tray.

"How did you prepare that so fast?" the Doctor asked, shifting in the chair he had taken, and watching her through floppy bangs.

"I was already making the evening kettle for Madame Vastra," Jenny said, flicking him a displeased look once. "You didn't remove your coat, and you really shouldn't be wandering about London without a hat, sir, especially coming to call at a lady's home."

"Ooh, I do like her. Is this who you are marrying?"

"I am not marrying anyone!" Vastra said in exasperation.

"Why not?" the Doctor asked.

"Where are you from that women can marry other women?" Jenny asked in shock, even as she poured tea for both of them.

"Here, there, every when," the Doctor said breezily. "Well, evidently the TARDIS brought me too early to bring congratulations. I'll finish my tea and be on my way."

Vastra gave an indecorous snort. "You're up to something, my friend, and I will puzzle it out."

The Doctor merely smiled as he took a sip of his tea.


	5. Salvation

The night had grown deep and cold, making Jenny worry. She knew her Madame often stayed out late, but… she was also a lizard, and that had drawbacks in the dark frigidity of winter.

She checked the clock once more, then brought her impatience forward to help her keep her courage. With a quick addition of her heaviest skirts and a proper coat, she took down the shotgun, fully trained on it, and kept it in the sleeve of her coat, carried in the gloved off-hand.

She hoped not to need it, but if her mistress had come to harm, she would not hesitate to use it. Settling her lined bonnet in place, her feet stamped into boots as sturdy and thickly lined as any scion of a rich house could wish for, Jenny Flint left her home a-hunting her employer.

Fortunately, for all the preparation she'd made, she found Vastra leaning against a wall a few streets over, evidently having been on her way back.

"Ma'am?" Jenny called, upon seeing the veiled woman she had grown terribly fond of there.

"Ah, my faithful maid," Vastra said, voice too soft and rasping with the effort to speak. "I would have found my way home once the sun rose."

Jenny frowned before moving to Vastra's side, thankful for the height difference. "Arm across my shoulders, ma'am," she insisted. "My left hand is full, but if you catch yours tight in my coat, I can hold your right in mine, and we'll make it to the house."

"Good girl, not coming empty-handed with this case afoot," Vastra told her approvingly, as she managed to follow directions.

It was a slow trek back, Jenny knew, but she also did not know how to fail. Even when her mistress's steps faltered, she kept at it, half-dragging her at times. At least they were close enough to their home to avoid most of the unsavory sorts, for the locals had learned trouble vanished when the veiled woman walked the streets.

Eventually, she got Vastra inside, the door bolted… and she finally saw that part of the wet on Vastra's clothing was not winter snow, but the darkening green of blood spilled.

"Ma'am!"

"I will heal, it's not vital, and do get that look off your face, precious."

Precious.

Jenny filed it away, but knew the pet name had to be from blood loss and hypothermia… or whatever lizard women from the dawn of time got when too cold.

"I'd draw the bath, to warm you, but if you're bleeding — "

"Was," Vastra corrected.

"— sitting in water is not the best idea, I think." Jenny looked at her employer, who was barely upright on the bench for removing boots. "Are you going to be well enough for me to get the outer clothes off?"

"Best if you do, yes," Vastra said, closing her eyes and leaning her head back. Nor did she hiss once when Jenny had her own clothes dealt with and moved to strip her down. Jenny didn't stop until she reached the under-garments, and by then she was certain her mistress was unconscious. The patch near where her employer had been stabbed, shallowly, seemed to have crusted over, with nothing fresh leaking out of the wound.

Rather than rouse her again, Jenny tightened her jaw and set herself how she'd seen Vastra pick others up. To her surprise, the woman was nowhere near the weight she'd been expecting, and that made her curious as to how lizard people might be made on the inside. It didn't, however, stop her intent, as she lifted and carried Vastra back to her mistress's room.

She could, and would, take care of the woman that had taken her in.


	6. Chrysalis

Vastra awakened to the feeling of being very near a warmth, much nearer than the usual heat source of her room. She turned her head, and … there was Jenny. She was still asleep, mouth slightly open, the dusting of freckles visible on her cheeks at this close range, and Vastra had always found those a fascinating thing to focus on.

She moved her hand up along her side, found bandaging along the wound she had taken. Jenny was in her under-garments, the blankets pulled up around them both with Jenny half covering her.

Truly her little maid was an asset to have, to know… and entirely too much a part of Vastra's awareness now. What had she done that night when she stopped the unpleasantness for this mammal?

Jenny's mouth closed, and her muscles bunched all along the side touching Vastra before she stretched, eyes fluttering open while Vastra watched her.

"Good morning," Vastra said, amused at the flicker of embarrassment before steadfast duty pushed it aside in those eyes.

"Good morning, ma'am," Jenny said, before reaching a hand up, touching Vastra's cheek with the back of her fingers. This was followed by finding Vastra's hand and testing the temperature there. She seemed satisfied, yet Vastra was not, for the touch had been too fleeting.

Bother. This was not a complication she had anticipated, yet she could see clearly now, over their time together, that training Jenny had fostered an intimacy she would not be adverse to pursing further.

"Jenny?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you." With that, Vastra leaned in to give her a light kiss on the forehead, one meant to be a symbol of gratitude for now, but also testing if there were any revulsion at such contact.

Quite the contrary, Jenny pushed a little into it. When Vastra moved back, Jenny's eyes were half-lidded, and oh the blushing made those freckles more dainty across her cheeks and nose.

"I did what was needed. After all, ma'am, you hired me, and I give good work."

"Hmm, so you do. Though I believe, Jenny, we may be skirting past that boundary a bit, hmm?"

The blush intensified, and Vastra chose a new target, catching Jenny's lips this time in a very gentle show of the growing affection.

To her utter delight, Jenny kissed back, and thoughts of more than exploring her precious mammal's quirks and responses slipped away.

* * *

It was probably near noon when Jenny was actually thinking straight, though she was still in her mistress's bed, the feel of Vastra's skin so unlike her own and yet everything she could want.

"What does this mean now, for us?"

Vastra tipped her head a little, then smiled. "A pretense that you are but my maid and assistant, as the world has already been told. With you and I quite aware it is pretense?"

"What kind of pretense is it, though? How safe is my place in your home, now that we've added bed-warming to the list of tasks?" Jenny asked, blunter than she meant to be, but she didn't want a disappointment later. She and Vastra had different ways of speaking words and what they meant, after all.

"It is not a task I expect of you. I would, very much, enjoy if you choose to share my bed, but it has no bearing on you and I remaining together, Jenny."

The words were stiffer than usual, and that… made Jenny completely certain this was a true sharing. She moved closer, snuggling in on the shoulder she'd claimed, hand finding Vastra's at her waist.

"I think I like bed-warming, when it is you that needs the warming, ma'am."

"This pleases me, that we are both happy with this arrangement."

Jenny smiled, before slowly rising. "Do you wish a bath?"

"I do. Fortunately, the bath tub is more than long enough to accommodate both of us, hmm? As I'd like you in it."

Jenny shivered, not just from the chill of the room. "I'll make it a deep one, then," she promised, pulling on the minimum to be decent in the house, and went to begin that task.


	7. Adjustments

Vastra settled in place as the client was led in, and she tipped her head just a certain way for Jenny to remain. She focused on the client, though, her veils opaque to the client's view.

"I don't believe your maid needs to be present," the man blustered.

"On the contrary, sir, she is my faithful assistant, and shall be working closely on this case," Vastra informed him. "I presume this will not be a hindrance?"

He fidgeted a bit, but eventually settled to business… and Vastra saw that Jenny understood swiftly. By having her in from the beginning on the case, it was a forward step in who they were with one another.

That it also allowed Vastra to observe different details on the class of the person coming for her services was but a secondary benefit.

More, it meant that Vastra had a mammalian view of the words said, with Jenny using all the tricks of observation that she had, listening for the lies, picking up nuances that an alien to the culture might miss.

She foresaw the Inspectors having much more business for them in the very near future as their partnership provided results on the cases they took.

* * *

They were catching their breath, after a lesson in swords, sitting back to back when Jenny asked a question.

"Why don't your people marry?"

Vastra should have been expecting it, and yet it had been weeks since the Doctor's strange visit. How best to explain, or even to proceed?

"Our society is not quite shaped as yours. Marriage is not something needed, as it seems to have grown out of an atavistic need for the males to stake claims over the children borne, and progressed into a property ownership over the women bearing them."

Jenny had to snicker once she worked through all of that. "Men don't fall real high in your eyes, do they?"

"Mammals, my dear, with a few exceptions. The rules by which this society operates leave me entirely unconvinced I was correct to let the Doctor convince me to integrate into this place." She sighed. "I had little choice, though. Reaching another hibernation location, and managing to bypass any security there would have been a bother at the technological levels currently available."

"Marriage can be more than that," Jenny said after a long moment. "It can be about companionship, and a symbol of promise between them."

Vastra mulled that over, considering it. "It would be close to the bond that my own people make among the warriors and scholars alike, to protect one another and assist in all matters?"

"That sounds much like what we do, ma'am," Jenny pointed out. "I follow your lead, and would do all I can to protect you."

Vastra moved then, turning in Jenny's direction… and Jenny matched her, so they were more face to face.

"Are you proposing?" Vastra asked.

Jenny blushed, but she did not look down at all. "If that is what it takes, since it is a mammal's custom," she said, mouth twisting in a smile for using Vastra's own epithet for humans. "Yes, ma'am. I want to be your wife."

Vastra took both of Jenny's hands then, and met her gaze fully. "Jenny, my wife, who happens to be a mammal."

Jenny laughed softly, but squeezed her hands. "Vastra, my wife, the lizard woman from the dawn of time."

"And now, we are married." Vastra leaned in to kiss Jenny.

Jenny certainly didn't seem to mind a bit, as she chased after that kiss and took one of her own.


	8. Epilogue

Vastra took in the woman in oddly short pants, shirt with a set of colorful stripes, boots, suspenders, and a long coat over it all. The short blond hair was framing a face…

…with a set of eyes far too old for the flattened ape's face.

"Doctor?" Vastra asked, following her intuition.

"Yes! Oh Vastra, I should have known it would be you who knew me!"

The pair of women moved back into the house, while Jenny rushed in from having been seeing to other chores.

"Ahh, Jenny! Hello again," the Doctor said warmly.

"It's the Doctor," Vastra reassured her wife.

"Still not dressed proper for calling on a lady such as you," Jenny said with a slight sniff. "I'll get the tea."

"I don't think she likes me," the Doctor said, looking more surprised than anything at all. She then clapped her hands together, looked at Vastra, and smiled brightly. "I know I have it right now! Congratulations, since I forgot to say that the last time I saw you -- which is not the last time you saw me."

"Thank you for clearing that up, and I would sincerely hope it had not been the last time you'd seen me, given your new face," Vastra said. "Shall we share tales of our adventures to date, while the tea is made?"

"Yes, though I may… leave a few bits out."

Vastra smiled. "You would not be you, if you did not."

They settled in to chat, and when the tea came and had been poured, Jenny perched on the edge of Vastra's chair. Vastra found it more pleasing than not to openly speak of her wife with another, and vowed to make society accept this union more openly.

It was the least she could do, for the woman that had stolen her heart.

**Author's Note:**

> [Taking Requests](https://merfilly.tumblr.com/ask)
> 
> * * *
> 
> If in this work, I have presented something that is in need of a tag for protecting readers, please drop me an email at sharpest(dot)asp(at)gmail(dot)com. This includes negative depictions or objectifications of any group of persons held as a minority.


End file.
